"Ah-, sorry."
I quickly unfolded the paper and fixed it, while the healer just left me in worry.
Right now, as the leader of the healers, I am to command and control the amount of healers on the three bases. The North, Middle, and South.
From my command, I have set the amount of healers in the middle base as minimal as possible. Everyone thought it was a bad idea, but having me here is the same as having three hundred healers at the same time.
And now, there are seventy capable healers on both the southern and northern base, while the middle base only has five newbies plus me. I am the only capable healer in the middle base, the base that will be the busiest base of all because all the fights are mainly centered in the middle side of the desert.
In a single base, there are multiple divisions, like the healers division, the soldiers main division for offensive, scouts division for night time scouting, and the guards division for defenses. All of these divisions are led by a single general for every base.
And as for this middle base, the general is the Master of The Adventurer's Office himself.
On my first day of arriving here after the Axelons meeting, I discussed with Valon about the chances of sending me out to fight. Unlike the king, Valon knows how capable I am in combat, and he knows that I am stronger than a White ranked adventurer.
However, he still forbids me.
His reasoning being that I will be the secret and hidden ace card of the entire continent, and that I must never reveal myself until the time is right. I should stay put, even if there are tens of people dying out there every minute.
Valon knows what kind of person I am, and he knows that I will definitely rebel. So, he tried convincing me one more time.
"If you go out there and fight, maybe there are thousands of people going to be saved. But, by revealing yourself, you allow your enemies to understand our strengths better, and I'm sure you know what will occur if that were to happen."
Valon said, and I can't deny him anymore.
He is not wrong. I know what it means to win a war, since I studied a lot of wars in my world's history.
Victory never comes from just strength. It comes from intelligence.
Maybe raw strength is the way to break through intelligence, but in an all out war where two sides are just as powerful as one another, there is no such thing as raw strength.
The only way to win is through intelligence. Strategies, planning, the ultimate way to perfectly utilize all of our assets and turn it to strength. That is the only way to win a war, and that makes information become each side's greatest weaknesses.
To save the people, I can go out and fight alongside them. But to win the war, I need to keep myself hidden for the one critical moment that will win us the war.
So, I followed his suggestion, and I kept myself hidden.
I stayed in the base. All day, the entirety of the time.
And everything I am doing… is just healing.
When the soldiers went out and came back wounded, I did all the healing myself and they quickly went out there again, only to come back wounded again.
I let out a sigh every time I saw the same face of the soldiers. There was a team in particular, adventurers who participated in the war as volunteers.
There were five of them, and each are Green ranked adventurers with their captain being Blue ranked. They are only a rank below me, but I assume they are quite skilled since they can still make it back alive from an all out battle with the demon army. But, it doesn't change the fact that they always come back heavily wounded every single time, which annoys me very much.
They didn't fight to get paid, since the pay for joining the war as adventurers is not as much as knights. But, they joined because they wanted to fight for the continent, and I really salute them for that. All the adventurers who fought in the war for that cause, I respect them.
I talked with them multiple times. I scolded them and gave them some tips on how to kill the demons. When they returned with lesser wounds, they told me the tips worked.
They are also really annoying. Since four of them are boys, they would spend fifty percent of our talk just trying to smooth talk and flirt on me.
But I held back the anger and disgust, because I wanted to learn from them. I thought about trying those smooth talking to Lescia later when I get back, and I get quite excited to say these lines to her.
They seemed to be quite a fun team, so I thought about joining them on an adventure mission later when the war is over--
"--I'm… sorry…"
The only female from the team said, whilst crying heavily in front of me.
It was only the third day ever since I joined the war.
Disaster… has already struck.
She arrived back at the middle base alongside the other batches of soldier groups, and it seemed like today was a day much darker than others. Everyone looked down, and there were more wounded soldiers than ever.
But she, the only female from the team who I always spend time talking with, rushed straight to me who was standing in front of the medical station entrance.
She immediately kneeled in front of me when she arrived, and she lifted her hands forward.
On her hands are a bunch of dark items that seemed to look like coal.
It didn't take me a second to recognize that those are fingers.
'If you go out there and fight, maybe there are thousands of people going to be saved.'
Valon's words echo-ed in my head again, and I immediately bit my lips.
Have I… made the wrong decision…?
I lowered my body and leaned forward, giving the only surviving member of that team a tight hug as she cried heavily on my shoulder. Behind me, the other nurses are shouting at me because there are lots of soldiers that needed treatment, but I didn't care.
Everyone on that team has died.
She… is the only survivor.
I just… wanted to mourn for a bit… for her sake.
.
.
.
In the morning, the soldiers departed in batches towards the middle area of the desert. To fight, and give their lives for the continent's sake.
No man's land. The battlefield where not a single soul can make it out easily.
Even when there is magic for range, the main content of the battles are still going to be melee. Combatants will meet one another in the no man's land and battle to the death, and only one side gets to push their territory even further on the desert. Even a single centimeter of a push is very important, but in a single battle, the size of the push can range to even hundreds of meters.
A losing battle will make us lose so much ground on our side.
Afternoon is when the soldiers return. Nobody can fight in the dark, but there are still going to be certain divisions that will go out in the middle of the night and find weak points of the opponents.
The soldiers returned, and the field commander reported to the general.
Today, we were pushed back by over ten kilometers.
The enemies used a new tactic where they prioritized ranged mages to fight on front lines, and it managed to take down our melee combatants by a huge amount. It was a huge risk on their side, because having rangers fight on the front lines is like sending them to die.
But to our surprise, the ranged mages on the demon's side were not weak. Our side couldn't even touch them, which made the battle completely one sided.
This has been our greatest loss ever since those initial two big battles that involved thousands of soldiers from both sides. So many soldiers died today, and over thousands are wounded.
Valon filled me in on the information right after I healed all the wounded soldiers. He felt just as difficult about this matter as I am, and he wouldn't want to stop me from going outside anymore after this.
But… can I bring myself to go out?
What exactly… is the right decision for me to make…?
Before dark, the war generals from the other two bases had arrived. Hearing that the situation has gone dire in the middle area, Hod who is the leader of the northern base and the general knight of Mazino who is the leader of the southern base, have come to the middle base.
They will spend the entire night talking about the plan to deal with the enemy's tactics, as well as the plan to win in the future. As generals from the bases, it is their duty to come up with a strategy that will for sure win us the battles, and whilst mitigating as many casualties as possible.
I didn't join in, because I just want to be alone for the night.
Just before dark, I bade farewell to the last surviving member of the team, the adventurer girl who came back to the base by herself. She left the battlefield, to deliver the message back to the families of her deceased teammates.
Seeing the emotionless expression she wore reminded me of a friend who also lost all their team members.
How did he… overcome that grief and guilt, and even continued bearing the responsibility as a White ranked adventurer?
Evening has arrived, all the combatants and personnel of the base are gathering on the front court.
Mostly, because they are sparring with one another.
The battle today was difficult, and we suffered a heavy loss. Everyone wanted to freshen themselves up by having a training session after dark.
Two people can be seen in the middle of a large arena that was formed by the earth magicians. They both are using wooden swords, and they fought one another until one winner came out.
A knight and an adventurer are having a go right now. The knight had the upper hand in the beginning, but the adventurer suddenly changed his battle style and was able to take the knight by surprise.
He won by throwing the knight off the arena. The judge called him winner immediately, and all the adventurers around the arena called his name.
I watched from afar, sitting on the bench right by the medical station.
This area is quite empty, since everyone is busy doing their jobs or having fun in the arena. And since I wanted to be alone, I stayed here and was all by myself.
But after sitting for only fifteen minutes, my senses told me that a group was walking towards me, and I turned to face them.
Immediately, I became surprised.
My old team, Valey, Barett, and Cony.
They probably came here because Hod also came. They probably followed along because they heard that I was here, and wanted a reunion or some sort. After all, they were stationed at the northern base, the very base that Hod is leading as the general.
And while Hod is discussing with the other generals, they came to have a chat with me.
The group is now back together.